BRITISH Champions Day staged another top class day of flat racing, the third in the European triumvirate: Irish Champions Weekend, Arc de Triomphe weekend/day, British Champions Day.

Just shows you, the three can co-exist perfectly harmoniously. Three weeks between Irish Champions Weekend and Arc weekend, two weeks between Arc weekend and British Champions Day.

Ideally there would be three, but two is okay, given the restrictiveness of the calendar. You can do them all. Found was second in the Irish Champion Stakes before winning that historic Arc, then finished second in the British Champion Stakes.

Or you can do two of the three. Almanzor won the Irish Champion Stakes and the British Champion Stakes. Minding finished third in the Irish Champion Stakes and won the QE2. Quest For More won the Prix du Cadran and finished second in the Long Distance Cup. Speedy Boarding won the Prix de l’Opera and finished second in the Fillies’ & Mares’ Stakes. And they are still surely searching for a snappier title for the Fillies’ & Mares’ Stakes.

The ground helped the day, that’s for sure. An unseasonably mild and dry October meant that the ground at Ascot last Saturday was as good or better than it had been all year, and it was significantly faster than it was at the royal meeting at the height of summer.

The contingency plan to move to the inside track was a good contingency plan to have, and the fact that both Ryan Moore and Pat Smullen expressed themselves happy with how the track rode when they trialled it means that it is a contingency plan that Ascot can keep up their sleeve for the future.

The fact that the inside track was good to firm, firm in places in the days leading up to the meeting means that it is possible that you could produce decent flat racing ground on it in the future in the middle of an October with average rainfall. You just have to move the picnic tables.